Sheet handling apparatus
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorJohn Earl Graham, II
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Sheet handling apparatus including burster apparatus for separating continuous form webs into sheets and for feeding the just-burst sheets along a sheet path to a stacker mechanism where the sheets are stacked on end in the same order they were in the web. A plurality of feeding means is spaced along the sheet path and these feeding means are selectively actuated to feed any size sheet and as the sheets are fed along the sheet path, each sheet can be selectively laterally offset to a plurality of laterally separated positions to facilitate the separation of the sheets into sets of copies, data sets or jobs.
Claims9
A universal job separation and distribution system for sheets separated from a continuous form web comprising:
- selectively actuable bursting means for separating sheets from a continuous form web;
- means for producing a signal corresponding to the sheet length in the web;
- first selectively actuable feeding means for feeding the burst sheets straight ahead along the sheet path at a predetermined velocity;
- second selectively actuable feeding means for feeding the burst sheets laterally as they move along the sheet path while maintaining the predetermined velocity along the sheet path;
- control means responsive to the sheet length signal for providing a first control signal denoting the relative time for initiation of a bursting operation, a second control signal denoting the relative time for energization of said second feeding means, and a third control signal denoting the duration of said energization;
- means under control of said first control signal to selectively actuate the bursting means and said first feeding means at the relative time defined by said signal;
- means under control of said second control signal to selectively actuate said second feeding means and selectively deactuate said first feeding means at a relative time defined by said second control signal to initiate an offset operation;
- and
- means for de-energizing said second feeding means and to energize said first feeding means in response to said third control signal to produce a predetermined offset to provide lateral separation of sheets into different groups.
Appparatus for transporting sheets along a predetermined path at a predetermined velocity comprising:
- means for producing an indicia of sheet length being processed;
- a selective actuable feeding means for feeding sheets straight ahead along said path;
- selectively actuable means for producing a lateral displacement of said sheet as it is moved along said path at the predetermined velocity;
- control means operable in response to said sheet length indicia for generating a first control signal denoting the relative time for energization of said means for producing a lateral displacement of said sheet and second control signal denoting the duration of said energization;
- means for energizing said lateral displacement producing means in response to said first control signal to initiate an offset operation;
- and
- means for de-energizing said lateral displacement producing means in response to said second control signal whereby a predetermined degree of offset is produced as said sheet is fed along said path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.